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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (Sept. 17, 2004)
September M ake Y r L ife The Butchies • Yep Roc Records B ack in 1996, guitarist Kaia Wilson and drummer Melissa York left the prized pioneering Northwest alt hand Team Dresch and eventually formed their own righteous dyke hand. With the smart addition of (fine-looking) bassist A li son Martlew, they gave birth to T he Butchies, a North Carolina-based political trio seriously treasured by many queer youth in and out of Portland. Their albums— Are We Not Femme (1998), Population 1975 (1999) and 3 (2 0 0 1 )— are now a living growth chart of the independent trio’s skills and musicianship. Luckily, M ake Yr Life, the punk-rockers’ new and far-away best record, shows another much-needed leap up that chart. It also marks the change from feminist, queer label Mr. Lady (founded by Wilson and ex Tammy Rae Car- land and recently packed up) to the similar Yep Roc. M ake Yr Life sports a promising air of un sullied, high-energy, fresh maturity and long- overdue professionalism. Moving away from a specific queer politics theme, songs find new ground in self-reflection and the depths of the lesbian tortured heart. This is no douht rich soil, hut to mirror the ups and downs of roller coaster lesbian drama, the hand feels the need to play an endless crank-up/mute-again game. Yes, we get it: The typhixm of tense, scathing guitar riffs and spiked-up drums eternally flows hack to a seem ingly relaxed yet loaded pericxl of calm and hack again. Overkill never satisfies. Also scraping the album’s edge is Wilson’s whiny, honeyed and utterly soulless lead vocal. It is plain wrong to let such unskilled sounds accompany the intoxicating first-class drum and guitar work. It’s time for The Butchies to polish their act all the way and bestow their fans more than a limp “almost.” There is nothing more frustrating than premature loss of momentum. — ELs Debbaut George, who plays it safe with ballads that are maudlin (“A Different Com er”) and drippy (“One More Try”). Not my style. The multiple personality disorder is even more pronounced on Patience, Michael’s first album of original material since 1996’s Older. At one moment he’s embracing his queer ness prouder than ever on “Flawless (G o to the C ity),” an instant dance classic that samples liberally from The Ones’ 2001 hit of the same name and includes gay-positive lyrics like “You’re beautiful...and you know it/You’re wasted here...in this small town in hand-me- downs...! think you know that you are more than just some fucked-up piece of ass.” He also sticks up for his brothers on “Cars &. Trains”: "Johnny’s gone and got himself a new man/He gets laid, every day...Take care of yourself/Because you won’t find ‘daddy’/When you’re popping those pills.” But wait: Here comes Straight George, trapped in the ’80s closet with dated ditties like “John &. Elvis Are Dead” and “My Mother Had a Brother.” Although these slow songs are somewhat moving, they disrupt the flow of an otherwise progressive album— which is a shame, because some of us just don’t have the Patience. —Jim Radosta Cha Cha / / / Rumba Country Swing • Just out v Learn to Ï REVIEWS 17.2004 V T Waltz Dance 503-236-5129 Foxtrot BACK TO SCHOOL SALE o • 5 world-class brands with over 20 models! out a««y »v Oyhoo com COLUMBIA • NOW Offering Financing! • Up to 100 MPG 5 0 3 . 872.8565 1417 SE 9th Ave. Portland, SCOOTERS OR 97214 Corner of Sandy Blvd. & NE 64th 3106 NE 64th Portland, OR 97213 503-280-8080 it 4 M y (jifts for Romance in an T-kgant Setting YOUR BEMTOM COUNTY & SALEM FAMILY REAL ESTATE CONNECTION H ymns of the 4 9 th P arallel k.d. long • Nonesuch Records I support GALA choruses! f you ever are in a rcx)m dur ing a k.d. lang performance, you are affect ed for life by that entranc ing voice. Not a soul before kncxrked out an audience as instantly and intimately as lang dtxis. The quintessential lesbian diva’s very own records fail to do justice to the presence of her range of voice, her velvet charisma. Still, a fraction of this phenomenal power can he found on lang’s captivating new disc, Hymns o f the 49th Parallel. Lang infallibly recasts, and at times outd<x_‘s, 11 hand-picked Canadian songs, includ ing timeless hreathtakers like Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah,” Joni M itchell’s “A Case of P atience You" and Neil Young’s “Helpless." George Michael • Aegean Records For lang, each song hears a hereditary effect so hroughout George Michael's strong that she views them career— even before he was as spiritual choral rather outed in 1998 for his in than simple, secular famous cop cmising— the songs. And as a Bud cnxiner has struggled with dhist and Canadian, two conflicting personalities. mirroring a stance Sometimes he’s Gay against the war, lang George, swishing all over intends to gracefully the place with numbers spread compassion that are celebratory and a reverence for (“Freedom ’90”) and all living things. energetic (“Tot) Be pre Funky”). This is the pared to he George I love. magnetized But in between and scream: this peppy music "lang for emerges, for president!” lack of a better — ED term, Straight George Michael lives a double life on Patience C o n g ratu latio n s Newlyw eds! B ry a n t Realty ( 541) 758-1234 x 21 1 CLARK HOUSE Sales Associate e -m a il: c la r k s h o u s e s @ a o l.c o m 1575 MW 9th Street • Corvallis. OR 97330 KING LEAR ‘■’ WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE T jn 503 274-6588 NEWMARK www .P C S org theatre amecP A GM AC OCT 5-31. 2004 PORTLAND CENTER STAGE THEATER L I VE
